Resilience Academy Bulletin · 2017-04-24 · Resilience Academy Bulletin By Ahmed I.,...

Resilience Academy

Bulletin

By Ahmed I., Ayeb-Karlsson S. & van der Geest K.

No. 04 / April 2017

The Resilience Academy 2016:

Enhancing resilience to minimize Loss

and Damage – providing knowledge for

the UNFCCC

The 2016 Resilience Academy (RA) was held in a

monastery on the island Frauenchiemsee, located

in Lake Chiemsee in southern Bavaria, Germany.

The focus of RA2016 was to provide evidence-

based material for COP22 and the UNFCCC WIM

ExCom by producing scientific papers and a policy

brief on Loss and Damage.

Organized by the Munich Re-Foundation (MRF), United

Nations University Institute for Environment and

Human Security (UNU-EHS), and the International

Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD)

the annual academy, first established in 2013, is made

up of two distinct events. The first, held in Bangladesh,

brings participants together to brainstorm and table

ideas. For the second event, held in Germany, the focus

is on finalizing these ideas and creating tangible

outputs.

The aim of the first RA2013 was to gain a deeper

understanding of livelihood resilience, while the

following academy analyzed abrupt changes of

livelihoods, transformations and transitions in people’s

lives. The most recent academies, RA2015 and RA2016,

linked the earlier concepts to Loss and Damage, and

aimed to provide evidence based scientific outputs to

the UNFCCC. The organizers were pleased with the

volume of papers and the efforts made at RA2016 to

move them towards submission in different journals. In

addition to the papers, a policy brief on Loss and

Damage was produced to support the WIM ExCom, and

released at COP22 in Marrakesh.

United Nations University

Institute for Environment

and Human Security (UNU-EHS)

UN Campus

Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10

53113 Bonn

Germany

Gibika E-mail: [email protected]

Fax: +49 (0) 228 815 0299

http://ehs.unu.edu/research/gibika.html#outline

Photos: © 2016 (Istiakh Ahmed and Christian Barthelt)

‘At Risk’ expert’s insights into research and policy

negotiations: From academia to the UNFCCC

‘At Risk’ expert Terry Cannon, from the Institute of

Development Studies (IDS), opened RA2016 with a

keynote speech entitled ‘Three Myths of Disaster Risk

Reduction: Problems of Priorities, Community, and

Policy’. First of all, the perception of risk differs

between development practitioners and those on the

ground, he explained, outlining scenarios where local

people’s attitudes towards risk differed from the

general DRR narratives. People may choose to live in

dangerous locations if it benefits their livelihood in the

short-run, for example (‘Where an NGO sees risks,

locals may see opportunity’). Secondly, the idea of

‘community’ is commonly referred to as a single unit

without hierarchical divisions and power relations.

But so-called ‘communities’ have internal diversions,

they are not so warm and cuddly as so often described.

And thirdly, there is a lack of willingness to prioritize

disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation

by national governments and large scale companies.

This year’s Resilience Academy also welcomed Koko

Warner, previously based at UNU-EHS, who recently

moved from UNU-EHS to join the UNFCCC. At UNFCCC,

Warner manages the sub programme on climate

“Impacts, Vulnerability, and Risks”.




UN Campus


53113 Bonn

Germany


Fax: +49 (0) 228 815 0299



She is responsible for supervising the implementation

of the work programme on Loss and Damage and the

Nairobi Work Programme. Her attendance provided

the participants with valuable insights into how best to

transfer knowledge to the WIM ExCom and the

UNFCCC. The presentation deepened the

understanding of what kind of expertise, needs and

research may be valuable for the UNFCCC and how to

communicate them.

Writing workshops: Conveying research findings to

wider audiences in an effective way

The Resilience Academy identified the importance of

questioning how to effectively and clearly convey

research findings to the public as well as to

policymakers. Often, for example, policymakers and

other key stakeholders struggle to follow the academic

writing style and thus, a technical or conceptual

jargon. A journal article focused writing workshop

was included the agenda, facilitated by Terry Cannon

who has extensive experience in publishing

peer-reviewed papers.

A second policy brief writing workshop was conducted

by Saleemul Huq and Thomas Loster. Here, they

described a few key take-away points on how to make a

short and crisp policy brief. It was pointed out that

there are different types of policy briefs, which makes it

important to know before starting out who is your

audience and what kind of approach would suit them

best. The workshop also addressed language, and how

one can communicate urgency with a clear message in

an attractive manner. Policy briefs are all about raising

an important issue in a short amount of time and space.

The workshop resulted in a policy brief on Loss and

Damage and livelihood resilience. Based on the rich

research experience of the participants at the academy,

five key insights and recommendations for action were

identified for the next five years of the WIM ExCom.




UN Campus


53113 Bonn

Germany


Fax: +49 (0) 228 815 0299



Policy brief on Loss and Damage

The policy brief suggested 5 key insights on

Loss and Damage that have strong policy

implications. These are as follows:

Enhance livelihood resilience to minimize Loss and Damage;

Stop ignoring the role of Loss and Damage to ecosystem service

Enhance understanding of social and cultural constraints to adaptation disaster preparedness

Identify ways to avoid erosive coping Engage with island states or other vulnerable

constituents as champions of action

In addition to these insights, the policy brief

also provided five major recommendations

for WIM ExCom:

1. Engage the Science Community – Natural and

social scientists have much to offer but need

to be mobilized to inform policy

2. Provide orientation through the structure of

the work plan

3. Evaluate the effectiveness of national and

sub-national mechanisms to address Loss and

Damage,

4. Ensure that policies and recommendations are

‘fit for purpose’ when it comes to serving the

poor and those most vulnerable to Loss and

Damage

5. Provide reflection and impulse to other UN

agencies and international organizations

Meet the RA2015/2016 participants Nandan Mukharjee is

affiliated as a PhD

student at the School of

Social Science and also

with the Centre for

Environmental Change

and Human Resilience

(CECHR) at the

University of Dundee. He

is currently on study

leave from BRAC

University where he was involved as Director and

Assistant Professor in the Centre for Climate Change

and Environmental Research (C3ER).

He taught different courses on climate change and

environment, including the climate change adaptation

course in the Post-Graduate Programme for Disaster

Management (PPDM), climate change and health

module in the James P. Grant School of Public Health

(JPGSPH) and the undergraduate course on

environmental science. Before joining the BRACU, he

worked for BUET and CEGIS. His expertise is on

climate change Loss and Damage, water resources

management, economics of adaptation,

environmental impact assessment.




UN Campus


53113 Bonn

Germany


Fax: +49 (0) 228 815 0299



Meet the RA2015/2016 participants Roger-Mark De Souza is

the Director of

P o p u l a t i o n ,

Environmental Security

and Resilience for the

Woodrow Wilson Center

in Washington D.C. He

leads programmes on

c l i m a t e c h a n g e

resilience, reproductive

and maternal health,

environmental security, and livelihoods.

Previously, De Souza served as Vice President of

Research and Director of the Climate Program at

Population Action International. From 2007 to 2010

he was the Director of Foundation and Corporate

Relations at the Sierra Club.

For ten years previously, he designed and imple-

mented research, communications, and capacity-

building projects in the USA, Africa, Southeast Asia,

and Latin America and the Caribbean at the

Population Reference Bureau.

Previously he worked at the World Resources Insti-

tute. He serves on the U.S. National Science Founda-

tion Advisory Committee for Environmental Research

and Education. He has graduate degrees from George

Washington University and the University of the West

Indies.

Published journal articles

Over the year, several peer-reviewed journal

articles from the Resilience Academy have

been published, listed here:

Ayeb-Karlsson S., van der Geest K., Ahmed I.,

Huq S. and Warner K. (2016). A people-centred

perspective on climate change, environmental

stress, and livelihood resilience in Bangladesh.

Sustainable Science 11(4):1-16.

Baudoin M.A., Henly-Shepard S., Fernando N.,

Sitati A. and Zommers Z. (2016). From

top-down to “community-centric” approaches

to early warning systems: exploring pathways

to improve disaster risk reduction through

community participation. International Journal

of Disaster Risk Science 7(2):163-174.

Contreras D., Blaschke T. and Hodgson M.E.

(2016). Lack of spatial resilience in a recovery

process: Case L'Aquila, Italy. Technological

Forecasting and Social Change. doi: http://

dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.12.010.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-016-0379-z





https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13753-016-0085-6







http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162516308551








UN Campus


53113 Bonn

Germany


Fax: +49 (0) 228 815 0299



Meet the RA2015/2016 participants Christopher J. Carter is a

FEMA-Certified Flood

plain Manager Based in

Bozeman Montana USA

now. Christopher holds

an honors B.Sc. in

interdisciplinary studies

from Montana State

University, Bozeman,

where he focused on

applied anthropology,

geography and visual communications. Working with

indigenous and remote communities globally he has

completed community-based participatory research,

action planning, and 20 films on six continents,

ranging from sexual health to responsible mining and

climate adaptation. His professional work as a planner

focuses on strategic planning, natural resource

management, indigenous planning, decision analysis

and value-focused approaches to impact assessment.

As a graduate researcher at UBC he has focused on

Disaster Resiliency of Place approaches to

Integrated Flood Hazard Management Planning in

coastal British Columbia under the supervision of Dr.

Stephanie Chang, a Professor in regional and

indigenous planning at Montana State University and

lead planner. He is also a filmmaker for Altus

Planning and Communications, a global consulting

firm specializing in flood risk and storytelling.

Thinking beyond research: Climate Action

The Resilience Academy has always brought

together a good combination of researchers,

policymakers and practitioners with the hope

of minimizing the gap between the groups. Not

only has the academy produced strong

scientific papers but it also inspired innovative

climate action ideas. One good example is Ava

Mulla’s project ‘Sand Cement Blocks’ (SCB).

Mulla is a social entrepreneur working in

Bangladesh to produce eco-friendly earth

blocks for building safe housing. Her project

aims to replace burnt clay-bricks with more

environmentally friendly earth blocks, which

will reduce carbon emissions. Mulla was among

the winners of the Google Impact Challenge in

Germany, winning her the prize money of

10,000 €. The Resilience Academy appreciated

her work and decided to financially support her

project.




UN Campus


53113 Bonn

Germany


Fax: +49 (0) 228 815 0299



Meet the RA organizers

Christian Barthelt was

awarded a degree in

economic geography by

Ludwig Maximilian

University, Munich, in

2008. His studies

focused on regional

economic networks and

tourism in developing

countries.

After completing his degree, he joined a Munich-

based IT services agency as an e-learning author.

Christian has been working as a project manager for

the Munich Re Foundation since February 2009. He

manages projects on disaster prevention, social

vulnerability and resilience, as well as projects in the

areas of climate change and education.

He is also involved with other tasks such as online

communications (website and newsletter),

supervising interns and preparing the Munich Re

Foundation’s environmental review.


Sonja Ayeb-

Karlsson joined

UNU-EHS in 2013

where she

currently

manages the

Gibika research-

to-action project.

She has spent the last couple of years conducting

research in the seven Gibika study sites in Bangladesh.

Her main focus here has been the development of

personal Livelihood History interviews and other story

-telling methodologies used to create individual and

collective narratives around what it means to live on

the frontlines to climate change or face environmental

stress. In 2015 her PhD proposal was accepted by the

University of Sussex (US) and the Institute of

Development Studies (IDS). The PhD aims to enhance

a deeper psychological understanding of why people

sometimes do not evacuate, migrate away from or

manage to escape environmental shocks and

disasters. Collective storytelling sessions, Q

methodology and critical discourse analysis have been

used to deepen such insights. Non-economic Loss and

Damage and its relation to human health and

well-being has played a central role in her work,

already published annually through The Lancet and

the Lancet Countdown expert group. Here she is a part

of the important research collaboration tracking

progress on climate and health up until 2030.




UN Campus


53113 Bonn

Germany


Fax: +49 (0) 228 815 0299




Kees van der Geest (PhD)

is a human geographer

who studies the impacts

of climate change,

adaptation, human

mobility, environmental

change, l ivelihood

resilience and rural

development with a

p e o p l e - c e n t r e d

perspective. He has

extensive fieldwork experience, mostly in Ghana (five

years), but also in Burkina Faso, Vietnam, Bangladesh,

Nepal, the Marshall Islands and Bolivia. Presently he

works as a senior researcher at UNU-EHS in Bonn

where he coordinates the work on "Loss and Damage

from climate change in vulnerable countries" and on a

five-year research-to-action project about livelihood

resilience in Bangladesh (the ‘Gibika’ project). He also

works part-time for the University of Hawaii on a two-

year research project about migration-environment

linkages in the Marshall Islands. Dr. van der Geest

studied at the University of Amsterdam and, for

three months, at the University of Sussex. From 2006

to 2009 he was a lecturer at the geography

department of the University of Amsterdam where he

taught courses on environment and international

development. Kees has also made two award-winning

short documentaries about rural life in the savannahs

of Northern Ghana.


Istiakh Ahmed is the

Coordinator for the

Resilient Livelihood

programme at the

ICCCAD under which

currently he is

coord inat ing the

research and action

phase from ICCCAD

s i d e . H e h a s

completed both a BSc

and MSc in Anthropology at Jahangirnagar University

and has significant experience of social research and

its different methodologies. Working with Gibika at

ICCCAD has given him a closer understanding of

environmental aspects of the social issues. He was a

USAid Gobeshona ‘Young Researcher’ fellow in 2015-

2016 and won the best poster presentation at

CBA10. While completing his university studies,

Istiakh was involved with a number of social research

projects with Plan International and an individual

consultant, Dr. Zahir Ahmed. Before joining ICCCAD,

Istiakh worked with BRAC Development Institute

(BDI), BRAC University on projects focused on

primary education and internal migration in

Bangladesh. His research interest areas are livelihood

resilience, adaptation to environmental stressors,

environmentally-induced migration, social

vulnerabilities due to environmental stressors and

social understandings and belief systems.




UN Campus


53113 Bonn

Germany


Fax: +49 (0) 228 815 0299



What‘s next?

Since 2013, the Resilience Academy has brought

together academics, practitioners, policy analysts and

journalists to discuss livelihood resilience and Loss and

Damage in the face of extreme weather events and

slow-onset climatic changes. Resilience Academy

participants come from 29 countries, from both the

global north and south. The group has a wide range of

institutional affiliations including universities,

international organizations, NGOs, think tanks, donors

and government institutions. The last four academies

have resulted in policy briefs, several working papers,

and journal articles being developed, and there are

currently more publications in the pipeline.

The Resilience Academy has by now completed its two

sets of academies (RA2013-2016) and will wrap up

with a final 2017 Capstone Conference in Washington

DC between the 16thand 19thOctober. The idea of the

2017 Capstone Conference is to bring back a number

of participants from both batches to discuss the

emerging issues of climate change. Unlike the other

academies, the Capstone Conference will have some

open sessions where experts from external

organizations, policy negotiators and the media will be

invited. Hence, the RA participants will get a chance to

share the results of the past academies and their work

with an wider audience.

Resilience Academy Bulletin · 2017-04-24 · Resilience Academy Bulletin By Ahmed I.,...

Documents

Transcript of Resilience Academy Bulletin · 2017-04-24 · Resilience Academy Bulletin By Ahmed I.,...